Window Boxes Made Easy

From Southern Living.com

Tips for Beautiful Window Boxes

• Be sure the window boxes have drainage holes. Leave at least 1/2-inch between the window box and the side of the house for water to drip through. This is especially important for houses with wood siding.
• Make sure the filled window boxes won’t be too heavy for the support brackets that hold them to the house. You can significantly reduce weight by using fiberglass window boxes and filling them with potting mix, not soil.
• One simple rule to make window boxes like these more interesting – plant a thriller (something tall), like a spiky cordyline; a spiller (something to trail over the sides), like white bacopa; and colorful fillers, like yellow million bells, coral twinspur, and orange snapdragons.
• Plant according to the season. For cool weather, plant million bells, lobelia, bacopa, twinspur, snapdragons, violas, nasturtiums, and flowering kale. For warm weather, switch to lantana, verbena, begonias, angelonia, impatiens, coleus, sweet potato vine, fanflower, narrowleaf zinnia, and Wave petunia.
• Don’t forget to water. Plants in window boxes dry out faster than those planted in the ground. Fertilize every two weeks with a water soluble fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro. Or incorporate a granular slow-release fertilizer, such as Dynamite, into the potting mix before planting.

Read more at http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/gardens/window-boxes-planters.